To prove (to myself) that I am not completely out of commission, I attended this morning's Bisnow event focusing on current goings-on development-wise in the Capitol Riverfront.

Here are a few bullet points of the development-type items I found of most interest:

* Dock 79 is 92 percent leased, and MRP Realty expects to begin construction on the residential building next door (71 Potomac) late this year or early next year--and that it is expected to have a lot more 2-bedroom units than Dock 79. I was also told that All-Purpose will probably open in the fall, and Dacha in the spring--and also that the planned small additional storefront for All-Purpose fronting Potomac Avenue has fallen by the wayside.

* One Hill South is 60 percent leased, and the developers have just begun design meetings for the project's second phase, another 300ish-unit building fronting South Capitol Street. That could get underway in a year or so.

* As the attendees were taking their seats at Arena Stage, a splashy video was played for the 25 M Street office building project planned by Brandywine REIT and Akridge. I can't link directly, but go to the (new to me) official web site at 25mst.com and scroll down to click on Property Video. Janet Davis of Brandywine did say that this building will not get underway until it's about 50 percent leased.

* Skanska's 99 M office building at 1st and M is expected to top out in about a month or so. Skanska's EVP Mark Carroll said that they expect to announce their first signed tenants soon, and that they are "not typical tenants." Both Carroll and Davis agreed that there has been a clear uptick in interest in Capitol Riverfront office space in the past six months or so.

* District Winery is crossing its fingers for a September opening. (Perhaps even earlier than September, but best not to get ahead of the permitting process.) Owner Brian Leventhal was on the Yards panel, and told the story of branching out from the original operations in Brooklyn without having any specific location in mind, and how once they narrowed to DC, everything about the lot at the Yards "was perfect, [so] we didn't consider any other space." (He also has moved to DC from Brooklyn, and said that living at the Yards is "like living in a resort.")

* 1221 Van is expected to begin move-ins later this year, and leasing should start in the relative near future.

* Forest City's Debbie Ratner Salzberg talked about how the Yards came to be, and said that "the minute Bluejacket opened [in 2013], we were on the map."

* And we definitely appear to be referring to the blocks immediately north of Nats Park as the "Ballpark District" once again.

* It was only mentioned in passing, but I should still officially note here that Cosmopolitan Nail Salon is now open in Arris at the Yards.

RMP says: (7/12/17 3:49 PM)It's been interesting to look inside District Winery at night when its dark outside but the lights are on inside. I was just wondering about the target for opening. Now I know.

NavyYardRes says: (7/12/17 4:39 PM)Nothing on Whole Foods? People must have lost all hope for it ever opening. Maybe Amazon Fresh?

JD says: (7/12/17 4:41 PM)There were no reps from WC Smith on the panels, so that's probably part of the reason it wasn't mentioned. I did hear references to the neighborhood having "two grocery stores," so maybe WF is still considered to be the second one. :)

202_cyclist says: (7/12/17 5:16 PM)Has Bluejacket already been open for eight years? Time goes by quick!

District Winery looks great.

JD says: (7/12/17 5:20 PM)No, no it hasn't. I knew I should have looked it up. I know she said 2009, but it's 2013. Fixed.

202_cyclist says: (7/12/17 5:48 PM)Speaking of Bluejacket, the tours are great-- I highly recommend it to the JD Land readers. We did a tour this past winter.

Changing gears, what do you all think can be done about removing the obsolete Capitol Power Plant someday?

Section314 says: (7/13/17 12:09 AM)I strongly suspect the Capitol Power Plant isn't going anywhere anytime soon unless Congress decides they no longer want or need heat or air conditioning. The members of the Supreme Court, users of the Library of Congress, and the tenants of the Government Printing Office, Union Station, Thurgood Marshall building and other buildings on the Hill probably would protest too. The power plant supplies heat to 25 buildings and air conditioning to 19 facilities so it might be premature to call it obsolete.

202_cyclist says: (7/13/17 10:36 AM)Some unfortunate news-- some of the teenage punks lit the shrubs and grass in front of the community center on fire yesterday evening. I walked by and thought it was a vehicle fire or perhaps a trash can that was lit on fire. Fortunately, a quick-acting neighbor was able to extinguish the fire prior to the fire trucks arriving.

Speaking of fire, however, the firework show at Nats Park last night was pretty great.

0X62 says: (7/13/17 2:29 PM)Ideally, Giant should come in and replace the new Whole Foods.

conngs0 says: (7/14/17 8:49 AM)Eh, I'm still holding out for Whole Foods. Granted, the store in JDLand will have a significantly bigger footprint, but the Giant at 3rd and H NE is pretty subpar. But I share the frustration and confusion regarding the lack of progress in that building. My hope (which is admittedly a bit of a stretch) is that nothing is terribly amiss and that they simply are taking their time with the construction in light of the fact that the construction in and around the Virginia Avenue tunnel is likely to disrupt the flow of people to/from the building.

malatesta says: (7/14/17 11:17 AM)FWIW,they are still making progress on the building. They've een doing some exterior work on the wall facing the freeway and in the rooftop amenity spaces lately, for instance.

nairobs says: (7/14/17 4:12 PM)Thanks for the write up! Was there anything at all on the movie theater?

JD says: (7/14/17 4:14 PM)Nope, I definitely would have included that if mentioned. This was, shall we say, a very upbeat set of discussions.

RMP says: (7/14/17 5:39 PM)Maybe everyone already knows this, but Tour de Fat is a ticketed event this year and they moved it over to lot H/I.

GG says: (7/14/17 11:44 PM)Given how long it took the same developer to finish Park Chelsea, I'm not giving up on the Whole Foods yet. I may be retired by the time it opens but...

202_cyclist says: (7/16/17 3:20 PM)Regardless of whatever else happens with the bullpen, at least the Nats are leading the league in facial hair this season.

ElCid14 says: (7/17/17 9:22 AM)Does anyone have any information on why it is taking All-purpose Pizza and Dacha to open under Dock 79? I saw that on Dacha's exterior they had a liquor license hearing on July 3rd. On the exterior of each says coming soon, Fall and Spring do not seem "soon".

JD says: (7/17/17 9:59 AM)For All-Purpose, they actually have three spaces to build out: the main restaurant, the outdoor space, and a roof space. Restaurant build-outs can take a long time.

As for Dacha, they may be able to be ready in, say, winter, but don't want to open until spring to maximize opening traffic and buzz.

greb22 says: (7/17/17 9:59 AM)I'm also hoping for whole foods still I really don't like giant

202_cyclist says: (7/17/17 11:26 AM)Admittedly, it is in SWTLQTC territory and not JD Land, but it looks like a lot of progress has been made on Audi Field over the past week or ten days. There are a lot of new steel beams that have been installed.

Westnorth says: (7/17/17 1:54 PM)Forest City gave a presentation about The Yards to a Citi investor conference recently. Slide 6 gives a timeline for the remaining residential parcels:Parcel O2, 191 units, open 10/2018Parcel L2, 264 units, open 11/2019Parcel I1, 350 units, open 10/2021Parcel H1, 250 units, open 5/2023Slide 9 mentions that the offices could be built anytime from 2018 to 2035, and says 10 major office tenants are considering the neighborhood.link

Westnorth says: (7/17/17 1:59 PM)(Parcels H and I are the parking lot south of N St, east of the ballpark and west of the main DC Water pumping station.)

Also, Bisnow has its own (less timely and less interesting) article about its event. link

RMP says: (7/17/17 2:42 PM)Nice find, Westnorth. Given the current pace of Parcel O I find it nearly impossible to think people will be moving in next October.

malatesta says: (7/17/17 3:10 PM)Maybe I'm dumb, but don't the lease up numbers in that presentation contradict what the other developers are saying -- Dock 79 said they were 92% leased up, but the chart in the presentation looks more like 60%.

JD says: (7/17/17 3:13 PM)They just screwed up the reporting. It was One Hill South that said 60% during the presentation. (Though I had been told "about 2/3rds" elsewhere)

malatesta says: (7/18/17 4:44 PM)Re the Capitol power plant we were talking about a couple weeks ago, looks like there's some movement forward happening:

The bike/pedestrian improvements listed on Commissioner Fascett's Facebook page for I Street and a possible NJ Ave/I Street traffic signal are excellent news. Both areas need attention and are potentially hazardous to pedestrians and cyclists.

Snacks says: (7/18/17 7:27 PM)I took a tour of Park Chelsea back around early April and was told the Agora wouldn't even hand over the space to Whole Foods until January 2018. If they keep going with what appears to be a 4 man crew I wouldn't even think they could stick to that timeline.

RMP says: (7/19/17 8:01 AM)Signage is up at Juice Laundry. Just a matter of time now.

JD says: (7/19/17 12:51 PM)The approved building permits feed is finally back on line. Yay! There haven't been any in the past two weeks, so the feed on the JDLand home page is blank, but going to the archive for this year:

There are indeed approved building permits for kiosks--one applied for by Bo Blair (so, Due South Dockside), and the other from the Altamarea Group--that's the Morini folks. Maybe, just maybe, a certain unmentionable pizza place is coming. Those two will each occupy two kiosks. Then a fifth kiosk has an approved permit for an "office" -- I think that's the marina office.

Nothing else too shocking (though I'm still looking) since on-the-ground evidence has provided the clues that building permits would have given advance warning of. But I'm still scrolling.

But, yay!

spiritequality says: (7/19/17 9:58 PM)Any word on that movie theater project? I believe it was call Showplace iCON or something grandiose like that.

bmooremsu says: (7/19/17 10:26 PM)According to the pdf in @malatesta’s link, the movie theater is expected in 2020. I have no idea how credible that date is.

Also, is anyone aware of why the AOC land on the south side of the capital is so underdeveloped relative to the north side? Have folks tried to get them to be better neighbors? It’s insane to have so many mostly empty surface parking lots, especially the one next the metro.

I agree with you that there is a lot of underutilized land there, especially in an area that is close to two metro stations. GGW had a good post about this a few years ago: link .

I've mentioned it before in these comments but the former House page dorm is an unfortunate waste of a building. It has been sitting vacant for a decade yet requires continued maintenance. This building is less than a ten minute walk from two metro stations. It also contributes to a void on NJ Ave. The Architect of the Capitol should sell this so more much-needed housing can be built there.

I agree with you that there is a lot of underutilized land there, especially in an area that is close to two metro stations. GGW had a good post about this a few years ago: link .

I've mentioned it before in these comments but the former House page dorm is an unfortunate waste of a building. It has been sitting vacant for a decade yet requires continued maintenance. This building is less than a ten minute walk from two metro stations. It also contributes to a void on NJ Ave. The Architect of the Capitol should sell this so more much-needed housing can be built there.

NavyYahd says: (7/21/17 8:34 AM)Looks like there are for sale sings up on the GSA property behind the Homewood Suites

202_cyclist says: (7/25/17 2:03 PM)So, are we going to put together a bid for the warehouse and construct the JD Land Towers?

RMP says: (7/25/17 2:36 PM)I'm surprised no one posted this Eater article about the Morini expansion. Sounds like they're just going to do a limited version of the existing menu? Which isn't that exciting to me, TBH. link

Westnorth says: (7/27/17 12:27 PM)Awww, no Morini takeout pizza. A walk-up bar sounds OK (kinda like the old Tour de Fat, which stationed a beer cart down there), but might change the vibe of that little trolls-under-the-bridge zone.

Yards parcel L-2. Construction of foundation and underground parking garage for new 11 story multi-family mixed used residential building at 227 Tingey Street SE as part of development of Parcel L at the Yards